Freedom and
Determinism
Hard Determinism
Review
 The Freedom Principle: Some actions are
free.
 The Control Principle: An action is free only
if it’s up to the agent.
 Determinism: Everything that happens is
causally determined by the past, together
with the laws of nature.
Garden of Forking Paths
Phil 114
Western
Bio 101
UW
Garden of Forking Paths
Phil 114
Western
Bio 101
UW
With earth’s first clay they did the last man
knead,
And there of the last harvest sowed the seed.
And the first morning of creation wrote
What the last dawn of reckoning shall read.
-Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
The Consequence Argument
If determinism is true, then our acts are the
consequences of the laws of nature and
events in the remote past. But it is not up to
us what went on before we were born, and
neither is it up to us what the laws of nature
are. Therefore, the consequences of these
things (including our present acts) are not up
to us.
-Peter van Inwagen
The Incompatibility Argument
1) Determinism is true.
2) If (1), then the Freedom Principle is false.
3) [So] The Freedom Principle is false.
The Incompatibility Argument
 Libertarianism: Determinism is false.
 Soft Determinism: Determinism is
compatible with the Freedom Principle.
 Hard Determinism: The Freedom Principle is
false.
Hard Determinism
The will… is necessarily determined by the
qualities, good or bad, agreeable or painful,
of the object or the motive that acts upon his
senses, or of which the idea remains with,
and is resuscitated by his memory. In
consequence, he acts necessarily,… he
never acts as a free agent.
-Baron D’Holbach
Hard Determinism
Choice by no means proves the free agency of
man: he only deliberates when he does not
yet know which to choose of the many objects
that move him… until his will is decided by
the greater advantage he believes he shall
find in the object he chooses, or the action he
undertakes. From whence it may be seen,
that choice is necessary…
Hard Determinism
The opposers of necessity say: that if all the
actions of man are necessary, no right
whatever exists to punish bad ones, or even
to be angry with those who commit them…
[But] Laws are made with a view to maintain
society, and to prevent man associated from
injuring his neighbour; they are therefore
competent to punish those who disturb its
harmony…